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lookin’ ass… (mashup) by pierre bennu

Art is a conversation. If you’re an artist & have something to say, say it with your work. Here is what Nicki Minaj’s use of Malcolm X’s image on her new single/video “Lookin’ Ass Ni**a” inspired in me.

so glad to finally see something that matches the pain i feel when i hear self-hating music like this. it just hurts my spirit so deeply and stuns me into silence. and this is feels so much like what i want to say forever, what i want to show. like i want to carry around a mini-projector, and just project this vid on my forehead when i hear this music of horribleness. Bless you.

kwabena

Feb 25, 2014

great follow up. yes she took the picture of Malcolm off the promo for this ignorant song – yet the song is still getting played. heard it on power 92.3 in chicago on yesterday. nicky ‘garbage’ is the only female rapper that is played on so-called hiphop radio and it has been that way for several years. Our youth will download this crap and listen to it repeatedly via overpriced headphones until we do something about it. Assante Sana for producing this. We will share. Check out Clear The Airwaves Project on Facebook to see what a group of us are doing to address the audio rape of our youth that is being carried out by Slophop!!

peaches

Feb 25, 2014

A picture is worth a thousand words indeed

Angel Levi

Feb 25, 2014

..It’s extrOdinary tO me hOw sOme Of us claims tO knOw the reasOns why “Niski” decided upOn that particular image as an attachment fOr her latest release. Self hate inspired cOmmentaries cOmes frOm persOnal experiences and believe me when I say that fOr whatever reasOn, we as a peOple Of bOndage all have Our individual demOns tO face. AccOrding tO histOry, this image Of MalcOlm refers tO him standing with arms prOtecting his family frOm the threat Of viOlence tO him, his hOme, and family, and accOrding tO that same histOry this impending threat was Orchestrated by his own race Of peOple!! One can Only imagine the disparity he must have felt in witnessing yet anOther example Of self hatred. I am by nO means saying whether Or nOt the images Of sOng tO visual cOntent is “right” Or “wrOng”, but frOm any perspective I will say that it is real!!..

Ruddy Roye

Feb 26, 2014

I am not qualified to critique her work as being offensive. What I will say is — (1) Her lyrics in her song is an indictment against the spineless version of people walking around claiming that they are MEN in our society and her words are only the collective vernacular of the period and time. This argument she has was addressed in the voice of the people who are around her and who listen to her music so I completely get it. It is not important if i agree with it or not, the genie is already out of the bottle. What I get is that MEN in her eyes do not have the same image as the one in her family album. And secondly, the day we started “sampling” everything is the day we allowed Nikki to use this image for her album. In my eyes nothing is considered too sacred. When we should have prevented people from using love songs to make gangsta rap we didn’t, so now that we have evolved we want to place the cart in front of the horse, it won’t work. Let us appreciate it for what it is — artwork for discussion and critique and move on.

Keith_Trevors

Feb 26, 2014

So Nicki Minaj makes a song about how she doesn’t fuck with men who are poor and low-class, and you decide to add a racist cartoon?

Look, I hate Nicki Minaj a lot, but she uses the word “nigga” as just a normal address to people. She’s not trying to use it as a hurtful slur. The hate comes with the lyrics talking about how they’re coughing after every drag of their cigarette, how they’re cheap fuckers sharing one bottle in the club, how they have boost mobile and pretend they don’t, etc.

She’s attacking these guys for being classless and poor. “Non-mogul ass niggas.” If you’re equating socially inept, poor people with black people, then you’re the ones being racist. Language evolves, and when she uses “nigga” she’s not using it as hate speech. But this fucking cartoon doesn’t evolve though, it will always be hateful, so what the fuck is wrong with you for thinking it’s cool to add to someone’s rap who’s actually fucking successful. Man fuck you for making me force Nicki Minaj on the internet, I hate her shitty music.

tai allen

Feb 26, 2014

@Keith Trevors I am unsure if you get the video and the purpose? Or, are you being funny in some fashion?

Cause the footage and her lyrics resonate on the same vibe: hatred of the black community.

One fashioned by external haters (if i recall correctly) and the other internal. One of our own who decided to vent her feeling… scorn men she does not want.

Note, i find there is nothing wrong with disliking a person, place or group. I do find everything wrong using the word NIGGA to describe men who are not the mogul type; who lies on their prowess; who engage in falsifying their worth; and, other aspects of buffoonery.

Language does evolve but the video and song sit in the same place. The song attempts to be she-roic but only falters.

The “Fucking” cartoon and “Nigga” song both provide our people with nothing. Not even the dark comedy each was trying to portray.

It’s funny how dudes are all bent outta shape because they perceive Nicki Minaj’s song to be “classless” and then they perceive this video to just be about race and they feel that both are offensive indictments against Black men, which proves both Pierre and Minaj’s point about the inherent sexism found in this society. The objectification of Black women’s bodies lives on a continuum and it lives because men do not want to recognize how perversely normalized this behavior has become. I salute Pierre because by using this footage of old Black stereotypes it makes obvious the ridiculousness of sexism within hiphop. You can focus on class and race if you want but this video makes clear that one of our biggest issues is how Black women’s bodies are viewed. Big-up P-Bennu!

I absolutely love this video and I also love Nicki’s song minus the use of “niggas.” On the radio, it’s been replaced by the word, “hittas” and I encourage everyone to listen again. I just got done writing on a certain aspect of this. Will post this link to my blog, this is perfect, Pierre! Sheer perfection!

Sun

Mar 2, 2014

This is scary a– excellent, Pierre! Marlon Riggs would most def approve

Nomos

Mar 2, 2014

Her lyrics are only speaking what’s going on. Nothing a$$ n***as. Only nothing a$$ n***as can get mad.

We all need to step our game up. That’s why there’s no respect. The rest of the world gives a f*c! about us, because we don’t.

Like “gangstas.” They shoot each other dead in the streets, but as soon as the cops come, they’re running like li’l bi!ches.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X no longer), Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King and others, were all trying to get everyone of us to understand the concept of NATIONS. Politically we have no voice because we are not united as a political body.

I believe they were killed because if that understanding was ever fully comprehended, it would place us back on the path to becoming the great peoples we once were. How great? The original stone masons, the original mound builders. Pyramids are everywhere we’ve been. We were developed over 2000 years before the Europeans.

Our minds have been taken. We need to take them back. It’s not about hate, and domination, it’s about the principles OUR fore-mothers instilled us with: Love.

Laney

Mar 2, 2014

There are a lot of mindless deluded whiners commenting on this site. Who cares what Minaj does? Silly silly people.

JayDee

Mar 2, 2014

this is both painful, and powerful…thank you for putting your genius and creative energy to good use. Hopefully through art, conversation, and meaningful action we will grow beyond our ills. Peace

Marcel Futrell

Mar 2, 2014

I love this, and alot of the rap music today is not music at all. Minaj, has a gift, but it appears that she is using it for bad, and not good.

Todd

Mar 2, 2014

I saw this video and it makes me sad that it was ever made. I’m white. I have a son who is half black. I am very protective of him and see his potential to be great. But I guess being white I don’t grasp the color element of being a real man or a real woman. It’s about protecting and nurturing and loving. Making sure our kids are better than we are by teaching those things. It doesn’t matter if you were developed 2000 years before the Euro’s. If any of us continue to live in the past then we will be left there in the future.

WhiteGuy

Mar 2, 2014

This is one of the funniest videos I have ever seen!
The song works perfectly because the images are still true and valid today. I’ve downloaded it and sent it to all my friends on Facebook. This is a work of art! Great job.

That cartoon is pretty cool though. From a time when we were not afraid to laugh at ourselves. Reminds meof the Lil Abner cartoons, Ma and Pa Kettle films and the Lum n Abner jot ‘em down store radio skits. No way today Sanford and Son could be on the air.

the coach

Mar 3, 2014

Regardless of your opinion, do not lose site of why this video was produced. It was a response to her use of a civil rights leader’s picture correlated to an issue of her’s that he didnt fight for.

Word2muffins

Mar 3, 2014

I wish people would be as offended when rappers say the word nigga and degrade women. Nicki only made up for all they time a woman has not been able to rap. She is also only speaking about unmotivated men that believe they deserve any woman for all their “hard” efforts in life. I love this son g and always will. This reminds us that we deserve men that are better than most of the low lives that surround us.

Ali

Mar 3, 2014

Speechless!!! I hope our young folks wake up SOON! Sad that our ancestors fought hard and gave their lives so artist like this chick can be successful! They don’t get it.

This videotoon gives Nikki more props that she deserves. It’s well edited and appropriate for the cartoonish and minstrelsy world many young HipHop folk try to live in. Our challenge is to get them out of this racist-capitalist matrix and be prepared for our next level of Black Liberation in a hyperglobalized world!

Now we need revolutionary Black animation. But that can only come from Sisters & Brothers with revolutionary consciousness. And this Brother is on the right track!

Afrored

Mar 3, 2014

Call it racist if you want to, but the image white American and the rest of the European sees world is just what Pierre displayed in this insightful, decoded and ingeniusly created short.

Brother Stan

Mar 4, 2014

*Fist Bump*

Say that Brother! Say that…

Afrored

Mar 4, 2014

Thanks Brother Stan, but I am a girl. *head nod*
I think the world sees black people being so mean and disrespectful to other black people that they think its ok. Ni**as in Paris, Twerkin, My Ni**a, and women call themselves bitches like it’s their first name. So when THEY do it, THEY think its ok because we are moving away from a politically correct, and socially conscious society. WE are fulfilling their preconcieved ideas about us. It’s not ALL our fault but we publicize our private thoughts and conversation to make a hit song. And we become shiftless negros and looking ass ni**as!

Hey! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before
but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s
new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking
back frequently!